Apple TV update at the rumored 26 of January event?

[kiranmk2]

Well, the iPad is powered by a proprietary Apple A4 1 GHz chip (probably from PA Semi) - presumably this (or a faster clockspeed version) will make it into ATV2 at some point.

 

[mychetboy]

Just met the new AppleTV...its called iPad

Its hard to imagine the ATV being refreshed in any major announcement. Since the iPad is wifi (in home) compatible, and while not currently available with an HDMI port (will probably be able to have a converter or doc), it seems that the AppleTV days may be numbered....am I way off here?

 

[NightStorm]

Its hard to imagine the ATV being refreshed in any major announcement. Since the iPad is wifi (in home) compatible, and while not currently available with an HDMI port (will probably be able to have a converter or doc), it seems that the AppleTV days may be numbered....am I way off here?

Why do so many people think that the iPad and the AppleTV are directly competing with each other? It's confused me since the first time I read this theory.

 

[Donar]

Since the iPad is wifi (in home) compatible, and while not currently available with an HDMI port (will probably be able to have a converter or doc), it seems that the AppleTV days may be numbered....am I way off here?

If you ask me you are way off. I really do not like the idea of always plugging "my" iPad to the TV everytime i want to watch something.

 

[kiranmk2]

If Apple could sort out the home server thing properly and release a new ATV they'd have the media market sewn up. People can simultaneously stream films to the TV (via ATV), to watch in bed (via iPad) and over 3G on the go (via iPhone). Hmm, I wonder if they are slowly positioning the Mac Mini server to fulfil this requirement?

A bit disappointed the iPad can only do 720p30 @3.1 profile rather than high profile and/or 1080p, but we won't know more until more details are unearthed (is the resolution limited by the fact that the screen is 1024x768 rather than lack of processing power?)

 

[fpnc]

...A bit disappointed the iPad can only do 720p30 @3.1 profile rather than high profile and/or 1080p, but we won't know more until more details are unearthed (is the resolution limited by the fact that the screen is 1024x768 rather than lack of processing power?)

The 720p decode capability is kind of immaterial since the iPad will only support VGA output at 1024x768. Thus, the iPad isn't an HD device and there is no way that it can replace the Apple TV (kiranmk2, I know you didn't suggest the latter but others had asked that question so...).

However, the 30fps support at 720p is kind of interesting since Apple doesn't currently offer any 30fps/720p content on the iTunes Store. The iTunes Store is limited to 24fps/720p since that is all that the current Apple TV can support.

 

[kiranmk2]

I made the point further up the thread that I thought how the iPad launch went would affect the status of the ATV and I'm sad to say that the only promising thing to come from the iPad launch is that Apple ARM chip - it seems likely that the ATV2 will use a relative of this chip along with iPhoneOS with a modified GUI. However, there was no mention of using the iPad as an iTunes remote (beyond using the current App), no mention of streaming videos/music from a server to the iPad over wifi (so it's sync or nothing like an iPod), a media-unfriendly non HD 4:3 screen and no mention of media partners beyond books. Looks like the ATV2 is still some time off

 

[NOD]

I think it's time to just give up on ATV2 and just put Broadcom chips in the ATV's we already have.

 

[Dan--]

Looks like the ATV2 is still some time off

Sigh. I unfortunately agree.

The two main bad points I see with the iPad intro (as far as the ATV is concerned) are:

• no 1080p
• no Flash support

I was really hoping they'd have this, PLUS incorporate wireless HDMI transmission with one of the new chipsets becoming available.